The Rise and Fall of the Crystal Empire
by Secret-Cheesecake
Summary: The ponies of the Crystal Kingdom struggle with everyday life when the malevolent unicorn, King Sombra, comes to power. I suck at making summaries seem interesting. DX


**Okay, this is my first MLP:FiM fanfic, so please be gentle! It's basically telling about how the Crystal Empire went from the Empire over 1000 years ago ruled by the tyrant, King Sombra, and how they recovered after it returned (the first few chapters will take place pre-canon, and the later ones will take place long afterwards).**

**All ponies in this fic, excluding the Crystal Queen (who only appears in this chapter, but will be mentioned in later ones), are canon, and the names of the Crystal ponies I got from the MLP Wiki (check it out here: wiki/List_of_Crystal_Ponies).**

**Please enjoy! XD**

* * *

The pale pink mare stood in the window of the castle, looking down at the somber sights far below her. The streets of her Empire, usually bustling with life and full of colour, was now quiet and empty, the only sound being the occasional breeze blowing by softly.

Finally, with a sigh, she forced herself to turn away from it and trot deeper into the castle, vanishing into the thick shadows within it. "It won't be long until he returns...to get what he came for." she said to herself, her voice barely audible. "It has been a long time since we sent him away, but..."

Her sky blue gaze fell to a small, sparkling crib nearby her, approaching it hesitantly. Within it lied a pink Pegasus filly, much smaller than herself, fast asleep within it and oblivious to what was going on around her, a small smile curled onto her lips. Her beautiful tricolored mane of pink, purple, and cream glistened slightly in the darkness.

"...well, he can't stay away forever."

She forced a small smile at her daughter, only for her smile to abruptly vanish, a look of despair accompanying the tears welling up in her eyes.

After a few moments, she lit up her unicorn horn with a brilliant aqua aura, the aura abruptly encircling the filly as well. She glanced down at her one last time and whispered shakily, "I'm sorry that I must do this, my daughter. I-I love you so dearly and...I-I'll miss you. I just hope one day, you'll be able to forgive me."

Then she lit up her horn brighter, the aura then beginning to cocoon the filly, but leaving her slumber undisturbed. Finally, after a final blinding flash, all light of her magic within the castle was gone, leaving the alicorn alone within it.

She looked into the crib, now empty excluding a faint scorch mark left by the power of her magic. She just prayed that the foal wasn't harmed in the process.

She only stood there for a few moments, tears streaming from her eyes. She hated that she had to send the filly away, but it was for her own good. She couldn't be safe here, nopony could.

After a while, she shakily looked upwards towards the sky and whispered under her breath, "Please...take care of her. Please..."

Suddenly, a noise from behind her startled her out of her grief. The sound of something falling to the floor and shattering in the process. She quickly turned to nothing but darkness, an old vase lying on the floor a few feet away, barely visible to her, lying in many broken shards.

"H-Hello? Is anypony there?"

No answer came forth.

"I know you're there! Come out while you still have the chance!"

She forced herself to muster up as much courage as she could, lighting up her horn with its brilliant aura once again, her violet tipped wings outstretched on her back. Again, no answer came and nopony showed their face to her.

She was becoming frustrated, opening her mouth to speak again, but she didn't have to. A deep, evil chuckle hit her ears, startling her slightly, but she knew all too well who and what it was.

"Come out, Sombra! You can't hide from me forever!"

A few moments passed once again, and finally the king obeyed her command, two dimly glowing green eyes materialized out of seemingly nowhere, vivid purple flames blazing from their corners, narrowed in a sinister glare. She didn't have to see the rest of his face to know that he was smiling.

"Well, that's no way to treat royalty." he said in a frighteningly calm tone, an eerie echo accompanying his voice. "You, of all ponies in Equestria, should know."

She paused for an eternity, fury shining in her eyes, but not matching the distressed expression etched onto her face. "You...you are no king, much less, royalty! How dare you call yourself such! You took your leadership by force in the Crystal Empire. You sparked fear into all of your-your "followers" and corrupted others so that they would obey you! _I _came to this Empir in peace and ruled these ponies in love and harmony, something you obviously have yet to learn!"

Again, there was a pause, that same malevolent chuckle from before breaking the silence after a while. "Oh, but your majesty, it doesn't have to be this way!" Before she could question him, he continued, "You see, we could rule alongside each other! Not just the Crystal Empire, but the whole of Equestria, the whole world! The possibilities are _endless!"_

She only glared at him uneasily, she knew good and well where this was going, she'd heard it many times before.

"Just think about it! All the immense power, hundreds upon thousands of ponies under your control! Isn't that all you'd ever hope for?"

Again, she paused, looking away briefly as if considering it, only to return with a barely audible, "No." her voice barely louder than a whisper. "What was that?" the stallion questioned her. There were a few moments of silence again in the darkness, before she finally rose her voice again.

"I said _no! _I _don't _want to lead anypony in fear and in hatred! I want to lead them in peace and in harmony, something I've done thousands of generations before you!" Suddenlym, she got nose-to-nose with the gray unicorn's seemingly disembodied head, finishing off as she yelled, "And I will fight you to the _death _if that's what I have to do to protect them!"

"Okay, that seems...reasonable," he began, rather calmly. But suddenly, his tone changed drasically to one of pure fury and hatred, "you'll only die slower!"

He abruptly lunged at the Crystal Queen before she had a chance to speak, taking his full form as a muscular, armored unicorn stallion. He threw her to the floor and lit up his red horn with a black aura, bubbling with lkime green and vivid purple as he attempted to deal a powerful, but fatal blast to the Queen.

But before he could do so, she hastily threw him off and fled to the corner of the room,a look of fear in her blue eyes as she lit up her own horn to blast back at him.

Suddenly, a taunting laugh came from the darkness as he shouted, "Ha, don't think you can get away _that _easy!" It only seemed to enrage her further as she shot a laser-like blast from her horn straight at him, only countered by a blast of dark magic from his own before it could strike him.

The two struggled against each other like that for a few minutes, but in mere seconds, the Queen's magic blinked out as she was struck dead in the chest by him and thrown head-first against the back wall, abruptly becoming very dizzy and not totally aware of what was going on. Sombra said something, but she couldn't hear, much less, understand it, nor did she really care, it was probably just another taunt at her.

But through her blurred vision, she noticed something hanging on the wall; it was a tall iron spear with a sharp-tipped crystal carved into an arrowhead shape at one end.

Gaining all the strength she could, she struggled to her hooves again, the pain in her chest momentarily becoming almost excruciating, before fading away again. She lit up her horn and levitated the spear from the wall, acquiring Sombra's attention, who was staring out the window at the ruined Empire below.

He was taken aback at the weapon she was abruptly holding, as she spoke up in a pained voice, "You'll never harm anypony..._ever again!" _Before he could speak, she powerfully thrust the spear forwards towards the king's head, which was deal a killing strike, but before she could, he materialized into shadow again and hastily slipped away, causing the spear to strike nothing but the smooth crystalline floor.

While Sombra was momentarily out of sight, she rushed forwards and grabbed the spear in both her forelegs and with her magic, struggling to pull it free many times, when all of a sudden, she was stopped in here tracks by Sombra's voice again, "Oh, but you don't know the half of it, queen..."

When she turned, he was abruptly nose-to-nose with her, his blazing green eyes practically glaring into her soul, but enough to temporarily blind her altogether. "I already have!"

Suddenly, her vision vanished and she found herself tied up in the corner of the dark castle, wondering what happened. Had she blacked out long enough for Sombra to tie her up so he could get what he wanted without her in the way? But before she considered it, she noticed something in front of her, a tall pink alicorn mare, glaring her down rather malevolently.

She was taken aback, it was almost like a mirror image, only this alicorn's eyes were pale fuschia and a cream streak accompanied her pink and purple mane. And in a matter of seconds, she realized who she truly was. The mare abruptly lifted a rather large scythe over her head, ready to deal a killing blow to the Queen, pausing just long enough for her to say a few shaky words under the mare's icy glare.

"C-Cadence...it-it doesn't have to be this way. This...it isn't right!"

But her daughter didn't listen, only abruptly brought the scythe down on her as she legt out a terrified scream, and suddenly, she was back to reality. Sombra had momentarily corrupted her, it was a vision, maybe even a flash-forward, of her worst fear.

"NO!" she abruptly yelled out. "I won't let you do this! I won't let you win!"

She attempted to throw Sombra off of her, but with a brief flash of his horn and an evil cackle, many snake-like strands of vivid purple magic abruptly snaked up around her legs, wings, and throat...and pulled tight, cutting off the airways in her throat and cutting off the blood flow in her wings and legs.

The skin beyond the hot strands of dark magic turned a deep, sickening reddish purple and her face beginning acquiring a blue hue. But the magic only pulled tighter to the point the skin beneath their grasps turned a vivid scarlet and blood began seeping beneath them.

She knew he was malevolent, even merciless at times, but never would've dreamt that he would really try to murder her. No, not try, he _would _murder her.

Her vision abruptly began fading, the sound of his laughter falling away, and as she struggled to move an agoned hoof, the strands vanished into thin air, but she instantly collapsed limply to the floor at Sombra's hooves as the almost hysterical laughter turned into a softer chuckle.

"Good riddance, queen, and don't wlorry, I'll be taking over around here when you're gone."

She struggled to breathe or scream or something, but all that came forth where sickening gurgles from her throat. It was over, he had won, and the Empire was doomed to suffer under his reign. Finally, she gave up the futile fight for life and let her eyes fall shut, allowing the pain and the terrifying thoughts to drift away.

And then she was gone.


End file.
